John Adams Dix

John Adams Dix (24 July 1798-21 April 1879) was Senator of New York (D) from 27 January 1845 to 3 March 1849, succeeding Henry A. Foster and preceding William H. Seward; US Secretary of the Treasury from 15 January to 6 March 1861, succeeding Philip Thomas and preceding Salmon P. Chase; and Governor of New York (R) from 1 January 1873 to 31 December 1874, succeeding John T. Hoffman and preceding Samuel J. Tilden. Dix also served as a Major-General in the US Army during the American Civil War, and Fort Dix, New Jersey is named for him.

Biography
John Adams Dix was born in Boscawen, New Hampshire, United States on 24 July 1798, and he enlisted in the US Army as an ensign in 1813. Dix resigned in 1828 with the rank of Captain, and he became Adjutant-General of the New York State Militia in 1830. From 1833 to 1839, he was Secretary of State of New York, and he was elected as a Democratic Party member to the US Senate in 1845 to fill Silas Wright, Jr.'s vacancy, holding office from 1845 to 1849. In 1848, he ran for Governor as a Free Soil Party member, but US Whig Party member Hamilton Fish defeated him. In January 1861, President James Buchanan appointed him to be the new Secretary of the Treasury, and he became a Major-General in the Union army when the American Civil War broke out in 1861; he had six members of the Maryland state legislature arrested to prevent the state from seceding. From July 1863 to April 1865, he commanded the Department of the East, but he was too old for field command. From 1866 to 1869, he was US Minister to France, and he was Governor of New York from 1873 to 1874 as a Republican Party member. In 1876, he was defeated while running for Mayor of New York City, and he died in 1879 at the age of 80.